Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-05-14

our destruction, seeing that It was unlawful
for amy stranger 10 enter here, when q mes
sage had come from She whomust-be-
obeyed, saying that our lives were to be
spared, and that we were TO BIO brought
hither. .IIe ENA
APardon me, my father."I interrupted at
this point; "but II, as l understand, She-who-
must-be-obeyed lives yet further of, how
could she have known OF our approach"
Billali turned, and seeing that wo were
alone-for the young lady, Ustane, had with
drawn when he began 10 speal-said, with
curious little laugh;
@Are there none In your land who can SEQ
without eyes and hear without eersl Ask no
questions: she knew"
! shrugged my shoulders at this, and i
proceeded TO say that no further instructiong
had been received on the subject of our dis
posal, and this being so, he was about TO start
TO interview She-who-must-be-obeye gem
orally spoken Of, for the sake Of brevity, rs
"Hiya," or She simply, who he gave IN to
understand was tho queen of the Amahns Eer,
and learn her wishes.
/ asked him how long no proposed 10 DO
away, and he said that by travelling hard BIO
might DO back on the fifth day. but there
were many miles OF marsh 70 cross before be
came to where She was. He then said that
every arrangement would be made for our
comfort during his, absence, ana that, as he
personally had taken fancy to us he sim
cerely trusted that tho answer ho should
bring from She would BIO ono favorable to
the continuation OF our existence. but at the
Same time he did not wish 10 conceal from US
that he thought this doubtful, as every
stranger who had ever come into tho country
during his grandmother's life, his mothers
life and his own life had been put to death
without mercy, and in way that he would
not harrow their feelings by describing; and
this had been done by the order Of Sho her
self-at least he supposed il was by her order.
At any rate, she never intcrfered to save
| them. 49,
@Why," said ''but how can ~ 80 You
are an old man, and the time you talk Of
must reach back three mems lives How,
therefore, could She have ordered the death
( or anybody at the beginning Of the life of
yonr grandmother, seeing that she herself
would not havo been bornss
Again he smiled-that Same faint, peculiar :
smile-aDd with deep bow departed without
making any answer; nor did we see him again
for five days.
When he had gone we discussed the situa-
ton, which filed me with alarm. did not
at all like the accounts Of this mysterious
queen. Sho-who-must-b e-obeyed, or, moro
shortly, She who apparently ordered the
execution of any unfortunate stranger In a
fashion SO unmerciful Leo, too, was de-
pressed about 1t, but proceeded TO console
himself by triumphantly pointing out that
this She was undoubtedly the person referred
to in the writing on the potsherd and In his
fathers letter, in proof of which he advanced
Billali's illusions to her age and power.
was by this time so overwhelmed with tho
whole course of events that had not even
got the heart left to dispute proposition so
absurd; so proposed that we should try and
go out and get bath, Of which we stood
sadly in need.
Accordingly, having indicated our wish to
middle aged individual Of an unusually
saturnine cast OF countenance, even among
the saturnine people who appeared to DO de-
puted to look after us now that the father Of
the hamlet had departed, we started In o body
having first lighted our pipes Outside tho
cave we found quite 9 crowd OF people, evil
IDENTIFY watching for our appearance, but
when they saw us come out smoking they
vanished this way and that, calling out that
|
about us created SO great sensation as our
tobacco smoke--not even our fire arms After
this we succeeded in reaching a stream and
taking our bath in peace, though some Of the
women, not excepting Usrane, showed do
cided inclination to follow us even there.
BY the time we had finished this most re-
freshing bath the sun was setting; indeed,
when we got back to the big cave 1t had al
ready set The cave itself was full OF people
gathered around fires-for several more had
now been lghted-and eating their evening
meal by the lurid light and by that Of various
lamps which were set about or hung up on
the walls. These lamps were Of arude man.
ufacture of baked earthenware, and of all
shapes, some OF them graceful enough. Tho
larger ones were formed of big red eaithcn-
) ware pots, filled with clarified melted fat,
and having reed wick stuck through q
wooden disk which filled the top OF the pot,
and this sort Of lamp required the most con-
slant attention to prevent its going out when
, ever the wick burned down, as there were no
means of turning it up. The smaller hand
lamps, however, which were also made Of
baked clay, had a wick manufactured from
the pith of O palm tree, or sometimes from
the stem of a very handsome variety Of fern
lnlS WICK chIiie up bnIOugH u round mole nb
the end of the lamp, to which sharp piece OF
hard wood was attached to pierce and draw
1t up with whenever 1t showed signs Of burn
ing low. G
For awhile we sat down and watched this
grim people eating their evening meal in ST.
lence as grim as themselves till at length,
getting tired of contemplating them and tho
huge moving shadows ON tho rocky walls, I
suggested to our new keeper that we should
like to go to bed.
| Without word he rose, and taking me po-
D litely by the hand, advanced with lamp to
: one of the small passages that had noticed
opening out of the central cavo. This we fol-
} lowed for about five PAGES, when Ii suddenly
} widened out into small chamber, about
, eight feet square and hewn out OF the living
rock. On one side Of this chamber was stone
, slab, about three feet from the ground and
) running its entire length, Ike bunk in q
cabin, and on this he indicated was to sleep.
D There was no window or air hole TO the cham
Der and no furniture, and on looking ait more
closely came 60 the disturbing conclusion lin
which / afterward discovered | was quite
/ right that 1t had originally served for a sep